OPINION & EDITORIAL
Letters to the Editor
Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.
Also by Letters to the Editor:
- SSFC stipend appropriate (December 11, 2007)
- Poor plowing cuts off handicapped access (December 10, 2007)
- Cars that actually help the environment (December 10, 2007)
- Organic food: Deliciously safe (December 10, 2007)
- Diversity deserves attention at UW (December 7, 2007)
Related Stories:
- U.S. soldiers do not enjoy killing (February 7, 2005)
- Protest far from treasonous (April 20, 2005)
- Military recruiters must remain on campus (April 14, 2005)
- Conscription's possible necessity (October 25, 2004)
- Why George Bush will need the draft (November 2, 2004)
by Letters to the Editor
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Regarding Casey Hoff’s “U. S. soldiers do not enjoy killing,” in the Feb. 7 paper, I served in the U.S. Army as a medic from June 1969 to January 1977. My brother volunteered for the draft and volunteered to extend his tour in Vietnam to gain an early out from his military contract. My father enlisted in the U.S. Navy after Pearl Harbor. And his father took a lateral transfer from the U.S. Army to the U.S. Navy after my dad enlisted. From our coming legally to America, my ancestors have served in nearly every generation in one or another of our armed forces. My qualifications are some match for young Casey Hoff.
I would not want anybody on line next to me who did not reflect the very attitude expressed by Mr. Mattis. The enemy of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and of our college boys, who were offended by the remarks made by a true American fighting man, makes me want to puke.
In basic training in June 1969, we were taught the “spirit of the bayonet” is to kill. We sang songs about killing our enemy. We were taught there are two kinds of soldiers — “the quick and the dead.” Had we not been trained in the school that understood combat was not a frat party, more than the 58,000 who died in the nearly 20 years we fought there would have perished.
Robert James Burkholder
Active duty June ‘69 to January ‘77
As a Catholic, I appreciated Mark Baumgardner’s Feb. 9 article, “Ash Wednesday: reason to reflect,” explaining the significance of the occasion. I especially appreciated the statement (quoted in the article) by Barone that “American Catholics are … more diverse in their opinions than ever.” Unfortunately, Baumgardner himself does a poor job of representing this reality as his article goes on to chastise supporters of embryonic stem-cell research, same-sex unions and abortion rights in a manner suggesting that all Catholics share his views.
In point of fact, they do not. Many Catholics support embryonic stem-cell research, and it was the Catholic mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, who issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples last spring. There are even Catholics who support abortion rights (see, for example, Catholicsforchoice.org).
Catholic moral theology allows this plethora of views, holding that one who has undergone a process of discernment (studying the Church’s teaching, praying and integrating all that with one’s own experience in the Holy Spirit) may dissent from the Church’s view. Indeed, one of the greatest Catholic theologians of all time, St. Thomas Aquinas, held that: “anyone upon whom the ecclesiastical authority, in ignorance of true facts, imposes a demand that offends against his clear conscience, should perish in excommunication rather than violate his conscience.”
In that spirit, perhaps the best way to assert the Catholic identity so straitjacketed by Baumgardner is to say, “I dissent.”
Matthew Rassette
School of Veterinary Medicine
Dorms. Let’s face it; they’re small and cramped, but they are home to a number of people. The University of Wisconsin has recently decided to close much of the graduate student housing, including my current home, Rust/Shreiner House.
While I personally would prefer to have more space, Rust/Shreiner was the perfect housing choice for me for my first year of graduate school. Since I was abroad last year, I did not have the opportunity to look for housing before the beginning of the school year. Fortunately, there was a room for me on campus, just minutes away from my classes and office. The rent is manageable and the bathrooms sufficient.
Living in Rust/Schreiner House has given me the opportunity to be part of a community that I otherwise never would have come in contact with. Here I have met people from Europe (Denmark, Germany and France) and Asia (Pakistan, India, China, Taiwan, Japan, etc.), as well as others from my home state of Minnesota. Because I grew up in central Minnesota, developing these international contacts has been an invaluable part of my education. I have also made at least one friend who I expect to stay in touch with for many years to come.
Dorms are an important part of the university experience, and not just for undergrads. It is a tragedy to see my home being closed and my neighbors being kicked out. Maybe we can turn this trend around.
Karen Scott
German department
Anonymous (February 10, 2005 @ 5:49pm):
"Catholic moral theology allows this plethora of views, holding that one who has undergone a process of discernment (studying the Church's teaching, praying and integrating all that with one's own experience in the Holy Spirit) may dissent from the Church's view. Indeed, one of the greatest Catholic theologians of all time, St. Thomas Aquinas, held that: "anyone upon whom the ecclesiastical authority, in ignorance of true facts, imposes a demand that offends against his clear conscience, should perish in excommunication rather than violate his conscience.""
Catholic moral theology does NOT allow a diversity of opinion on certain topics. To be in favor of abortion, for example, is to contradict the Fifth Commandment of the Decalogue that forbids murder. Catholic moral theology does NOT and CANNOT allow divine revelation to be contradicted.
You quote the Angelic Doctor out of context as well. His reference is to a well-formed conscience. It is an important distinction to make. You quote, "anyone upon...violate his conscience." This quote is often used by people seeking to justify their dissent. I will reference the website that you did to prove my point. Claiming the identity "Catholic" does not make one Catholic. Believing as the Catholic Church teaches does. Remember that Jesus said to His apostles, the primative college of bishops, "He who hears you hears me..." That means that the pronouncements of the Church in union with the Pope with regard to faith and morals is binding in conscience, and all such pronouncements demand what is called the "assent of faith." Even a non-doctrinal teaching elaborated in an encyclical, for example, demands what is called "religious assent" for the duration of that papacy.
Saint Thomas Aquinas taught about conscience in his "Summa Theolgiae." For the Angelic Doctor, Man's last end is union with God in the Beatific Vision. This is achieved through faith and virtue. So for him to recommend vice as virtue would be for him to contradict the very basis of his theology.
"Woe to those who call evil good,
and good evil; Who put darkness for light,
and light for darkness" (Isaiah 5:20).
He addresses this more fully when he contends that "some actions of man are evil." That means that some actions cannot be justified as being the consequence of a "plethora of views." Also, because of a lack of a well-formed conscience, Saint Thomas quotes St. Augustine when he writes, "that some sin through ignorance."
The most full elaboration of the necessary connection between right reason and a well-formed conscience, however, is treated in the section entitled "Whether the will is good when it abides by erring reason?"
I quote at length: "If then reason or conscience err with an error that is involuntary, either directly, or through negligence, so that one errs about what one ought to know; then such an error of reason or conscience does not excuse the will, that abides by that erring reason or conscience, from being evil...the will that abides by that erring reason is evil; since this error arises from ignorance of the Divine Law, which he is bound to know."
But how are we to know Divine Law. We have recourse to the Church and her infallible teaching with regard to faith and morals. Christ guaranteed that "the jaws of hell shall not prevail against it" and that the Spirit will "lead to all truth."
In fact, those who contradict fundamental teachings of the Church, especially in the contradiction of divine revelation, are guilty, according to Canon Law, of material heresy because they separate themselves from the Body of Christ which, according to Saint Paul, is to be united with one faith, not segmented by "plethora of views."
Kevin Barnekow
